Bossy Boiler
by Consulting Sorceress
Summary: It's not James' fault he always gets into trouble. And it's not James' fault he gets teased for it. Oneshot.


**Bossy Boiler**

_A/N: I would like to point out that when I was writing this I had recently watched 'Thomas and the Magic Railroad' and had that version of James in mind. It shouldn't really make much of a difference apart from the fact that each engine had individual voices, which really do make a large impact on personality views and such. Although James was only in the movie for a short time, I think that the voice and specific lines he said made him sound younger than in the series, and he acted more like a stubborn school boy than an ignorant jerk (Don't get me wrong, I love him either way). Anyway, just keep that it mind. ;)_

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><p>James the red engine rested in the shed with all of the other engines, he found, to his utter dismay, that his place of resignation had somehow ended up being between where Gordon slept, and where Thomas resided. Great. This was where the engines normally came when they were in a bad mood, and those two were the last people he ever wanted to speak to when he was in a bad mood. Like now for instance.<p>

Once again he had been confined to the shed for the whole duration of the day, and who knew how much of the next day he was going to have to spend in there. Until Sir Topham Hatt decided to let him out again. The apparent reason that he was in here in the first place was because he had 'been naughty' and gotten, as some people may call it to make things easier 'grounded'.

He didn't even see what he had done so wrong this time! All that had happened was that he and Bertie –the bus that frequently drove alongside the rails- had gotten into a sort of dispute on about whether James could run twenty five trucks of coal over the viaduct before Bertie managed to get to the east station and back. But, of course, he didn't _have _twenty coal trucks to deliver…so…he'd simply _borrowed _some of Percy's. Was that so bad?

Well…okay, fine. That wasn't the whole reason he had gotten into trouble. To take so many trucks over the viaduct at one time would be pretty dangerous. So, James had decided to make a couple of journeys. If he went fast enough, he would probably still manage to beat Bertie. He decided it would be best to take six trucks at a time…which, of course, on the fourth trip would leave him with seven. Normally that would be no problem…but he'd never taken that many over the viaduct before, especially not in the windy weather that was occurring that day.

Either way, he was determined to win the bet. He _was _the fastest, and the strongest, and the most useful engine on Sodor Island!

Sadly, that hadn't turned out too well. On James' fourth run, he caught a glimpse of red through the trees that bordered the rail road. Even though Bertie would have to take the long way round and go on and windy road, James still wanted to make _sure _he'd win. So he had increased his speed.

And for what happened then…he blamed the stupid placing of the bridge. Come on! Who in their right mind puts a viaduct straight off of a corner? Evidently, this argument hadn't got the red engine too far when The Fat Controller had found out what happened.

After having seen Bertie, James had sort of…well, panicked. He had increased speed, rounded the corner and…heh…three of the trucks had _somehow _managed to 'jump' off the track and off the bridge. James had only just managed to get to the other side of the bridge before he too flew off the rails.

…And to be honest, he still didn't think that was deserving of being restricted to the shed for almost a week. It was so unfair! Thomas hardly ever got into any trouble! Nor did Percy! Or even Edward! And he could only think of a couple of times that Henry and Gordon had ended up in trouble. But it seemed to be becoming a frequent thing with James.

He could swear that he'd ended up being sent to the sheds at least thrice in the last two months, whether it be for an hour for something miniscule, or something _slightly _bigger like this. It wasn't his fault that he did things wrong sometimes.

His position among the trains was hard place to be!

He didn't quite fit in with anyone. He tended to end up hanging around with the bigger engines like Gordon and Henry, but then again, half of the time the jobs he was given to do lead him to work alongside Thomas and Percy. It was always pretty confusing when Henry and Gordon decided to have one of their occasional rants about how they were better than most of the other trains because they were mainly used for pulling coaches, only very rarely asked to shunt trucks as a punishment or something similar. It was hard trying to go along with what they were saying about trains that pulled trucks…when James was one himself half the time.

It was also confusing when Thomas and all the other tank engines kept including him in their description as 'the big engines'. Yet Gordon and the other tender trains often described him as one of the smaller ones, often referring to him as 'Little James' when speaking to him…which annoyed him very much.

He seemed to be somewhere in the middle, along with Edward, who was around the same size as him.

All in all, it wasn't always easy for James on the Island of Sodor. But he'd managed to get on with it and had managed to build a reputation among the other trains…even if it was the vain, hard headed red engine. Nobody's perfect, right?

There were _plenty _of good things about him! One being his _amazing _red coat of paint. Another being how he had pulled himself out of the ditches (not literally, that's pretty hard to do when you're a train) when he had first started. He often brought up the subject when Gordon began teasing him about something (although he _was _careful to leave out the part that made him go into the 'ditches' in the first place.

Anywho, you would have thought that with all the boredom and being stuck in the sheds all day that James couldn't wait to get to sleep to pass some of the time. But it was getting late now, and he _still _wasn't asleep. He'd been staring straight ahead at the thin air in front of him for the last hour or so.

Finally, his eyes began to droop when…

"James?"

Dang it.

"What?" James asked quietly, trying to make his voice sound as annoyed as possible.

Thomas smiled to himself, "I'm guessing you're not asleep then? Something bothering you?"

James was about to answer into the pitch black when he was cut off.

"Wha-? What's going on?" Another voiced mumbled groggily.

Gordon.

James was _not _in the mood.

Whenever any engine was kept in the sheds, they _always _ended up getting teased about it. That's why he had pretended to already be sleeping when the other engines had come back from their work.

"Go back to sleep!" James snapped. He was careful to keep his voice quiet enough so as not to wake the other trains. That was the last thing he wanted to do. "Just shut up and leave me alone."

James scowled when he heard Gordon's low chuckle before Thomas answered, "Alright, Bossy Boiler. What's up with you?"

"Nothing!" James retorted defensively.

"Alright, No need to snap!" Gordon said firmly, "…It's just because you've been kept in the sheds. Isn't it?"

James didn't answer. He merely rolled his eyes, good job the others couldn't see him through the darkness.

Gordon chuckled again, "Well, hopefully it'll teach you a lesson. And hopefully, this time it'll stick. You never learn, little James."

With that, Gordon closed his eyes and went back to sleep again before anything else could be said.

But that didn't stop James mumbling, "_I'm _not a little engine. _Thomas _is a little tank engine!"

"Hey!" Thomas said resentfully, but it was obvious in his voice that he wasn't exactly deeply offended by it.

"It's true, though." James grinned.

Thomas was about to reply but ended up merely agreeing, "Suppose. Anyway, I thought you'd be used to being in the sheds by now. You're in here often enough."

James paused for a few long moments, not sure whether he should confide what he as about it say in the tank engine or not. "..It's not really that that bothers me much anymore. It's annoying, yeah. But the thing about it that I really hate…" He paused and looked at Thomas, attempting to see his expression in the dark, "That everyone teases me for it. I know it's _sorta _my fault because of how I 'show off'. But I can't help it! It's natural!"

Thomas rolled his eyes, "If you're worried about being made fun of for it, then stop getting into so much trouble. It's really not that hard." The tank engine sighed when he didn't hear James reply, "…Besides, I'm not teasing you, am I?"

"You were before."

"Fine. I'm sorry, James." Thomas apologised, "Happy? And don't worry. You've probably heard most of the good insults that we have to offer about you by now." He grinned. "I'll try not to tease you about it anymore…if you try and stop getting put in here in the first place. Deal?" he offered.

James thought about it for a second, "…Deal."

Thomas smiled, "Good. Your side of the deal will make my part a _whole _lot easier. And about Gordon and the others, they'll get bored soon enough. It's not happened yet. But it will."

James stayed silent for a few moments, before saying quietly, "Thanks, Thomas."

Thomas smiled to himself as he closed his eyes. "Night, James."

"Goodnight."

…

Gordon smirked to himself as he opened one eye. "Good luck with that." He muttered quietly under his breath with a slight chuckle.

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><p><em>AN Reviews appreciated as I would like to know whether James' character was acurate enough or not. Thank you :)_


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